HARRY Kewell insists it is not a case of dropping players when it comes to Latics’ squad rotation.

The Australian has maintained throughout a season impacted by Covid-19 and with an increasingly packed fixture schedule that he is going to chop and change his side from game-to-game.

That could lead to some frustration among players who are determined to play every single possible minute in League Two.

But should anyone come and knock on his door asking for more game time, Kewell revealed he admires the policy of England rugby union head coach Eddie Jones, currently guiding the national side through their Six Nations campaign.

“I heard an interview with Eddie Jones where he talked about one of the England rugby players supposedly being ‘dropped’,” the Latics boss said.

“He said: ‘Dropped? What do you mean dropped?’.

“The guy said: ‘Well he’s not playing’. Eddie Jones replied: ‘That’s the problem, he’s not been dropped, his role has changed for the team’.

“That’s how you can explain it. It’s ‘your role is you’ve got to be prepared to come on and win this game. This is different and this is what I need you do to’.

“That’s the key and what players need to understand. In a certain game I might need a player to tire another player out for 60 or 70 minutes.

“You can say ‘this player is going to do all the hard work and you’re going to get the glory. Next game, guess what? Your role is to do the opposite for the other player’.

“For me, that’s how I would explain things.”

Kewell concedes that in an ideal world he would pick the same 11 players week in, week out to build real cohesion and understanding as he looks to climb the League Two table.

But with Latics one game into a run of 14 matches in a little over seven weeks, the Oldham boss believes that is simply not realistic in the current climate.

He also warned about too many players coming in from the cold when needed, pointing to the policy used by top clubs in the Premier League.

Kewell told the Trust Oldham Q&A: “If you constantly play the same team week in, week out – and everyone says ‘that’s the best way to do it’ which it is because they have that connection – what happens if two or three players get injured?

“You keep dropping in one or two players but these one or two players are only getting 20, 10, or five minutes here and there and it’s tough to get their natural ability out.

“They’re going to have to play three or four games consistently to get that.

“Squad rotation is vital because every player needs to be ready to go out there and play.

“It’s something I believe in, even though I know from when I was a player that you always want to play.

“We’re playing in difficult times. I could understand if we had a facility like Liverpool or Man United where you could come in, get your massages and your food and your treatment and all that kind of stuff and everything was done for you.

“I could understand that you could put out the same players week in, week out. But even then, the best teams in the world don’t do it. Just look at Pep Guardiola, he has squad rotation.”